The Audible Past

Table of contents

The Audible Past explores the cultural origins of sound reproduction. It describes a distinctive sound culture that gave birth to the sound recording and the transmission devices so ubiquitous in modern life. With an ear for the unexpected, scholar and musician Jonathan Sterne uses the technological and cultural precursors of telephony, phonography, and radio as an entry point into a history of sound in its own right. Sterne studies the constantly shifting boundary between phenomena organized as "sound" and "not sound." In The Audible Past, this history crisscrosses the liminal regions between bodies and machines, originals and copies, nature and culture, and life and death. Blending cultural studies and the history of communication technology, Sterne follows modern sound technologies back through a historical labyrinth. Along the way, he encounters capitalists and inventors, musicians and philosophers, embalmers and grave robbers, doctors and patients, deaf children and their teachers, professionals and hobbyists, folklorists and tribal singers. The Audible Past tracks the connections between the history of sound and the defining features of modernity: from developments in medicine, physics, and philosophy to the tumultuous shifts of industrial capitalism, colonialism, urbanization, modern technology, and the rise of a new middle class. A provocative history of sound, The Audible Past challenges theoretical commonplaces such as the philosophical privilege of the speaking subject, the visual bias in theories of modernity, and static descriptions of nature. It will interest those in cultural studies, media and communication studies, the new musicology, and the history of technology.

This title provides a fascinating exploration of recording consciousness and compositional process from the perspective of those who make records.

Jonathan Sterne shows that understanding the historical meaning of the MP3, the world's most common format for recorded audio, involves rethinking the place of digital technologies in the broader universe of twentieth-century communication history.

Explores the principles and practical considerations of spatial sound recording and reproduction. Particular emphasis is given to the increasing importance of multichannel surround sound and 3D audio, including binaural approaches, without ignoring conventional stereo. The enhancement of spatial quality is arguably the only remaining hurdle to be overcome in pursuit of high quality sound reproduction. The rise of increasingly sophisticated spatial sound systems presents an enormous challenge to audio engineers, many of whom are confused by the possibilities and unfamiliar with standards, formats, track allocations, monitoring configurations and recording techniques. The author provides a comprehensive study of the current state of the art in spatial audio, concentrating on the most widely used approaches and configurations. Anyone wishing to expand their understanding of these cutting-edge technologies will want to own this book.

The Boer War. Two best friends. Divided by war. Banished by his father, Sebastian Brigandshaw arrives at the Cape of Good Hope and upon arrival is welcomed by a Boer hunter, Tinus Oosthuizen. The pair forms an unlikely friendship, spending many days in the vast wilderness, carving out a future from a savage land. But their days of peace are numbered. War is looming. What was so peaceful now becomes volatile and unsettled. Both of them now find themselves fighting on different sides. Would you kill your best friend for queen and country? Read this unforgettable, historical series that begins with the Boer War and how their families were dragged through some of Africa’s most aggressive and remarkable days... Ready for the journey? Then buckle up. For fans of Wilbur Smith’s Courtney Series, Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge novels, Jeffrey Archer’s Clifton Chronicles and books from Tony Park, comes an electrifying series with a family you won’t want to forget. Thousands of copies sold WORLDWIDE. Discover what all the fuss is about. “Very balanced view on the Boer War. I could feel real emotions.” “As my grandkids would say, it got betterer and betterer. Worth all five stars.” “One of the most amazing reads I have had for a long time, it takes one back to the day, you can smell the African bush.” “What a wonderful book! Full of history and philosophy. A book that I will read again after a while.” “Superb! All Rimmer’s books are such great reading!” “Excellent African history. Wilbur Smith fans will be pleased.” NEW EDITION - MARCH 2019 Go on, scroll up and get your copy today.

Retired from his fighting days, John Perry is now village ombudsman for a human colony on distant Huckleberry. With his wife, former Special Forces warrior Jane Sagan, he farms several acres, adjudicates local disputes, and enjoys watching his adopted daughter grow up. That is, until his and Jane's past reaches out to bring them back into the game--as leaders of a new human colony, to be peopled by settlers from all the major human worlds, for a deep political purpose that will put Perry and Sagan back in the thick of interstellar politics, betrayal, and war. Old Man's War Series #1 Old Man’s War #2 The Ghost Brigades #3 The Last Colony #4 Zoe’s Tale #5 The Human Division #6 The End of All Things Short fiction: “After the Coup” Other Tor Books The Android’s Dream Agent to the Stars Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded Fuzzy Nation Redshirts Lock In The Collapsing Empire (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

From Edison’s invention of the phonograph through contemporary field recording and sound installation, artists have become attracted to those domains against which music has always defined itself: noise, silence, and environmental sound. Christoph Cox argues that these developments in the sonic arts are not only aesthetically but also philosophically significant, revealing sound to be a continuous material flow to which human expressions contribute but which precedes and exceeds those expressions. Cox shows how, over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, philosophers and sonic artists have explored this “sonic flux.” Through the philosophical analysis of works by John Cage, Maryanne Amacher, Max Neuhaus, Christian Marclay, and many others, Sonic Flux contributes to the development of a materialist metaphysics and poses a challenge to the prevailing positions in cultural theory, proposing a realist and materialist aesthetics able to account not only for sonic art but for artistic production in general.

Audible Empire rethinks the processes and mechanisms of empire and shows how musical practice has been crucial to its spread around the globe. Music is a means of comprehending empire as an audible formation, and the contributors highlight how it has been circulated, consumed, and understood through imperial logics. These fifteen interdisciplinary essays cover large swaths of genre, time, politics, and geography, and include topics such as the affective relationship between jazz and cigarettes in interwar China; the sonic landscape of the U.S.– Mexico border; the critiques of post-9/11 U.S. empire by desi rappers; and the role of tonality in the colonization of Africa. Whether focusing on Argentine tango, theorizing anticolonialist sound, or examining the music industry of postapartheid South Africa, the contributors show how the audible has been a central component in the creation of imperialist notions of reason, modernity, and culture. In doing so, they allow us to hear how empire is both made and challenged. Contributors: Kofi Agawu, Philip V. Bohlman. Michael Denning, Brent Hayes Edwards, Nan Enstad, Andrew Jones, Josh Kun, Morgan Luker, Jairo Moreno, Tejumola Olaniyan, Marc Perry, Ronald Radano, Nitasha Sharma, Micol Seigel, Gavin Steingo, Penny Von Eschen, Amanda Weidman.

Max finds himself in a time loop. Any kind of death annuls everything except his present knowledge and returns him to the past. This is a good way to test all sorts of things. That is, it would be, if not for one little thing... This loop has real lords and it's unlikely that they'll be happy to hear about an uninvited guest.And that isn't his only problem -- all of his memories of the last year have simply disappeared, but the world around him has changed in the meantime. Earth has been seized by the Velly clan and is now part of their Star Empire. Max has also discovered his gift. He's a psychic.However, his power isn't that big of a deal.Everyone can be a level one "battery." To do anything else, however, you need to have some talent, money, and connections, which only complicates things further.A whole new world, great opportunities, and lots of chances to get into trouble... Welcome to the Last Time Loop!